This grants stream provides funding for projects that create additional kindergarten places for 3 and 4-year-olds by building new, or expanding existing, infrastructure.

The Building Blocks Capacity Building stream offers grants to help increase capacity through new or expanded kindergartens.

Capacity grant funding has already increased significantly since the introduction of free Three-Year-Old Kindergarten, with grants now scaled in line with the number of new places created.

Eligible projects can now access funding at up to double the rates previously available.

Grant categories

Integrated Children's Centre: These grants provide funding for new community hubs, bringing together a range of professional services to deliver education, care, health and support to children and their families.

Application form

New Early Learning Facility: These grants provide funding for new kindergartens that will offer high-quality early learning for 3 and 4-year-olds.

Application form

Modular Kindergarten Buildings: These grants cover the full cost of high-quality modular buildings. They can be available quickly to meet urgent demand for kindergarten places. They are relocatable, and their quick delivery reduces safety risks, construction time and costs.

Application form

Organisations can apply for:

• a one-room (33 Approved Places) modular kindergarten facility and associated works, delivered by the Department and valued up to $2.0 million;
• a two-room (66 Approved Places) modular kindergarten facility and associated works, delivered by the Department and valued up to $3.0 million;
• a three-room (99 Approved Places) modular kindergarten facility and associated works, delivered by the Department and valued up to $4.2 million.
• a 1-room (33 approved places) compact modular kindergarten facility and associated works valued up to $2.35 million;
• a 2-room (66 approved places) compact modular kindergarten facility and associated works valued up to $3.6 million.

Additional funding may be available to support projects with complex site conditions.

Expansion: These grants provide funding for projects to increase the licenced capacity of kindergartens offering programs for 3 and 4-year-old children.

Application form

What can be funded

• project management costs
• planning and design costs
• soil hygienist reports
• site preparation, including clearing or demolition (if the project will be on Department land please contact VSBA before applying to confirm how these costs can be funded)
• construction and commissioning
• landscaping and car parking
• fixed fittings and fixed equipment
• removal of contaminates on project sites (e.g. asbestos/arsenic), as long as it is within scope of the State’s financial contribution to the project.

Who can apply?

Your organisation can apply if it is:

• a Victorian local government (Council);
• a not-for-profit community organisation that is a legal entity (for example an incorporated association, incorporated cooperative or Indigenous corporation);
• a Victorian government school; or
• a Victorian non-government school registered with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority or Catholic Education Commission of Victoria.

For-profit organisations cannot apply for any grant streams within Building Blocks.

For further information regarding grant eligibility, please refer to the Building Blocks Capacity Building Assessment Factsheet below.

Your project must be for a facility in Victoria that is, or will be, approved to provide a funded Three and Four-Year-Old Kindergarten/Pre-Prep program and must offer or intend to offer both programs.

What cannot be funded

• site acquisition and lease costs
• routine or cyclical maintenance works
• purchase of cars, buses and other vehicles
• ongoing administration or operational costs
• staff salaries and training
• toys, portable equipment and consumables
• cosmetic upgrades that do not increase capacity
• removal of contaminates on projects sites (e.g. asbestos/arsenic), following announcement of the grant
• additional funding due to project cost overruns.

The Building Blocks Capacity Building stream will not fund projects that:

• do not create additional kindergarten capacity and do not address unmet demand as identified in the relevant KISP;
• are not at facilities that offer (or intend to offer) both Three and Four-Year-Old funded Kindergarten programs;
• are located outside Victoria;
• do not align with the program objectives;
• do not meet the requirements outlined in these guidelines;
• do not meet the assessment criteria;
• have already started or been completed (i.e. retrospective funding); or
• are further stages of existing or completed projects.

• Phone: (03) 7005 1955
• Email: building.blocks@edumail.vic.gov.au